As the head of Matchroom Sport, he has revolutionised snooker twice and made his PDC Darts World Championship the second most viewed event on Sky Sports. He managed a stable of boxers in the 1980s and his son Eddie is now guiding the career of world heavyweight king Anthony Joshua among many others.

Now 70, Barry still describes himself as “an accountant from a council estate with a chip on his shoulder”. He still rallies against “the blazers” and still wants to change the sporting world on a daily basis.

For the last two decades, Neil Smythe has forged a career at the vanguard of football content.

He was behind the camera (and in front of them too) at Soccer AM before helping to launch Copa90 and the Man United fans' YouTube channel, FullTimeDevils.

But his new role is helping Hashtag United convert from a 'YouTube team' filming friendlies to one that plays competitive football in the non-League pyramid in England. Their launch channel promised the Premier League in 10 years!

Suddenly, it is serious football and how with that affect the well-publicised success story of Hashtag United

John Cross is one of the best story-getters currently working in British sports journalism.

As Chief Football Writer for the Daily Mirror, he was in Russia reporting on the World Cup when he chatted to Sport: Digital and Social.

We spoke in the first week of the tournament and there was much to discuss: covering England, the Panama team-sheet story, a new media approach for the Three Lions, social media, his career and the industry in general.

He was employee #13 at the Toronto Raptors basketball team, #1 at current MLS champions Toronto FC and was also first through the door at the Candian Premier League.

The CPL will launch in April 2019 with Beirne as President. We talk about the compelling metrics behind the League’s formation, the role fans are playing in building it from the ground up, the specific Canadian solutions they are searching for and the content strategy they’ll need to tell their story

As Chief Football Writer of the Times, Henry Winter is one of the most respected and influential sports journalists currently working the UK.

Winter’s career started well before social media but he has fully embraced the medium and now boasts a Twitter following akin to that of a mid-table Premier League club.

This is a wide-ranging conversation taking in the state of sports journalism, the newspaper industry, TV and sport as well as social media. But it is all underpinned by the thoughtful analysis and humility Winter’s readers will know so well.

Aside from training and playing, he is building businesses, developing his charity and promoting a personal brand on YouTube.

The Benin international has featured for Blackburn, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough during a high-calibre career. But his is looking ahead to later life with a spirit of entrepreneurship and self-development.

Raised in the projects of Pittsburgh, he became an elite amateur boxer, mixing with heavyweights who fought Anthony Joshua for the world title. However, like many athletes, he would lose his way, personally and professionally.

Latimore regrouped, went back to school and into the military. Now he combines a professional boxing career, with a degree in physics while writing self-help books with titles like “Not Caring What Other People Think is a Superpower”.

It is a strange world, money-orientated, often murky, environment of small-hall boxing, while blogging and writing about the more philosophical aspects of the human condition.

So how does that dichotomy work?

How did he handle a crushing first defeat? Did he take his own advice?

After all, Latimore is the only fighter who has written a book on confidence.

Colin Kelly is Director of Digital at a soccer team who are yet to play a game.

LAFC will kick-off their first MLS season in March 2018. But, unlike most of the recent expansion franchises, they are an entirely new club.

For the content team this one huge blank sheet of paper, when I spoke to Colin, he had barely met the playing staff.

So, how do you create a fresh and engaging soccer tale in Tinseltown, the storytelling capital of the world? Still, LAFC have a star-studded ownership group, a nationally known-coach, a soccer-lovers stadium on the way and soaring ambition

Kevin Doyle was forced to retire from football in September 2017 at the age of 34 after suffering complications over concussions. An intelligent, hard-working striker, his 16-year career including successful spells at Reading, Wolves and, in the US, where our paths crossed at the Colorado Rapids. Doyle also won 63 caps for Ireland, scoring 14, with the highlight being his involvement in Euro 2012.

Doyle’s decision to call time drew tributes laced a tinge of sadness, given the enforced nature of his retirement. But, a few months on, how is he feeling now? How is he reassessing his life and career? Where is he going next? And how does he feel as a former footballer?

Anthony Joshua is fighting Joseph Parker at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on March 31 with three of the four heavyweight title belts on the line.

On this edition of Sport Digital and Social, I speak to Parker’s promoter David Higgins about how he managed to engineer a lucrative unification bout for his fighter when the chances seemed remote. Also how technology helped and hindered in that process, the counterintuitive nature of boxing PR, how and when the ‘trainwreck’ a press conference, his plans to unnerve Joshua, how the fight will secure Parker’s future and how David Higgins got into the boxing business.

Starting a sports digital agency is a dream for many people and arguably there has never been a better time set up on your own.

You are your own boss, you can be creative, work in sport and make good money. On the flipside, the responsibility is entirely on your shoulders and, right now, competition is particularly intense.

Luca Massaro took the plunge five years ago when he set up WePlay in London. In this podcast we talk about how he assessed the market before launch, character lessons, how they have had to change their offering, the crucial art of pitching for business and the qualities that brought them the Football Business Agency of the year award in 2017.

This is not the cosy cake-filled commentary box of the BBC. It beers and banter in a basement flat plus humourous, sometimes sweary, jingles at major moments. (You’ll hear a few of those through this podcast).

But real innovation (not just the copying and twisting that content creators constantly do) so often starts at this level and has to fight resistance from those in incumbent positions.

So is Guerilla Cricket a revolutionary new model for live commentary that could be rolled out across other sports?

Digital and social media has given them unprecedented tools of direct communication. So does that mean you can just find your audience, tell your story, engage your followers and then sponsorship dollars will roll in?

Ehsen Shah, MD of B Engaged, is guiding some major footballers through this particular opportunity/problem.

What they have to do, how they have to act, who they have to listen to and how they react to ‘haters’ or tough times on the pitch?

In late 2017, Inter Milan announced a major innovation in their content capabilities. The Serie A club hope Media House will be a revolution in the way they tell their story. I wanted to explore the concept a little further so I spoke to Inter’s Media Content Director Giuliano Giorgetti about how this famous old team is trying to change its culture for the digital age.

Mario Leo is one of the best analysts in sports digital and social media. His company, Result Sports, works with many of the biggest football clubs in the world crunching crucial numbers and much more. I went to visit him near Frankfurt to discuss the trends he noticed in social media among football clubs in 2017 and what we can expect in 2018.